Strategic Finance Associate

Strategic Finance Associate

About the Role

We are looking for a Associate to join the Strategic Finance team and help strengthen how the business plans, tracks performance, allocates resources, and makes decisions across markets. This role will partner with country and functional teams to drive planning, performance management, and strategic initiatives that connect directly back to the P&L. The ideal candidate is highly analytical, commercially minded, and comfortable solving complex problems in a fast-moving, multi-market environment. They should be unafraid to roll up their sleeves, work through imperfect data, challenge assumptions, and translate insights into practical actions that improve business performance and support the company’s most critical priorities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Annual & Quarterly Planning: Partner with country and functional teams to drive the annual and quarterly planning process end-to-end, ensuring financial targets and strategic priorities are aligned and pressure-tested.

• Analytics & Insights: Deliver financial insights that drive action and decision-making. Partner with data engineering and analytics teams to improve data accessibility, automate where possible, and conduct deep-dive investigations when the numbers do not reconcile or require further investigation.

• Strategic Initiatives: Lead or support cross-functional projects that improve financial performance and operational efficiency. Ensure initiatives connect back to the P&L so the business is making trade-offs with full visibility of impact.

• Presentations to Leadership: Own the narrative and present financial performance, strategic recommendations, and risk/opportunity assessments to senior leadership on a regular cadence.

• Business Trends & Variance Analysis: Analyse performance trends and drivers of variance across markets, synthesizing complex data into a clear "so what" for senior leadership.

• Operating Process Improvement: Work with stakeholders to design and improve core operating rhythms (business reviews, financial reporting, strategic forecasting) so they run tighter and surface better decisions.

Required Skills and Competencies:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills: Ability to break down complex financial and operational issues, identify key drivers, diagnose root causes, and translate analysis into practical recommendations.

• Financial modelling and business planning: Strong Excel and modelling skills, with the ability to build driver-based forecasts, scenario analyses, budget models, and performance tracking tools.

• Commercial judgment: Ability to connect financial outputs to business realities, understand P&L impact, and help the business make better trade-offs across markets, functions, and initiatives.

• Data fluency: Comfortable working with large or imperfect datasets, investigating discrepancies, and partnering with analytics or data teams to improve reporting quality and accessibility. Familiarity with SQL, Python, BI tools, or similar analytical tools is a plus.

• Clear communication and storytelling: Ability to synthesize complex analysis into a clear “so what” for senior leadership, including written narratives, presentations, and risk/opportunity assessments.

• Stakeholder management: Proven ability to work with country, functional, finance, data, and leadership teams to align on priorities, pressure-test assumptions, and drive follow through.

• Relevant experience: 5-7 years in strategic finance, investment banking, transaction advisory, management consulting, or PE/RE fund operations. Real estate or asset-heavy business experience is a plus.

Behavioural Attributes:

• Self-starter: Able to operate independently, structure ambiguous problems, and move work forward without waiting for detailed instructions.

• Ownership mindset: Takes responsibility for outcomes, operates with high attention to detail, and is willing to roll up their sleeves to solve problems in a fast-moving environment.

• Adaptability: Thrives in uncertain and fast-changing environments, with a proactive and positive attitude.

• Growth mindset: Curious, open to feedback, and eager to learn new tools, business models, and ways of working. Continuously looks for ways to improve both personal effectiveness and team processes.

• Bias for action: Focuses on practical recommendations and timely execution, not just analysis. Able to turn insights into actions that improve business performance.